China, Economy | featured news

Economic growth in China during the third quarter of the year is expected to have slowed as a result of government measures to curb inflation.

Every six months, the Treasury issues a report declaring that China’s currency is undervalued, draining dollars and jobs out of the U.S. economy. And every six months, the Treasury defers action, saying the Beijing government is not manipulating its currency. But with the prolonged slump in jobs, pressure is mounting among American politicians — as well as those in Europe, Brazil and emerging markets — to challenge China, even if that means imposing import tariffs to protect domestic industries and jobs.

Europe is caught in an economic pincer: slow-growth assaults from one side; fickle financial markets from the other. One obvious way out — the China option — seems barred by geopolitics. There is precedent. Historians blame the Great Depression’s severity in part on poor international cooperation. Economist Charles Kindleberger found a vacuum of power: Great Britain, the old economic leader, could no longer lead alone; and the United States — a replacement — wasn’t ready to help. Is there a parallel today between the United States and China? Are we repeating the mistakes of the 1930s? Unsettling questions.

The United States and China piled pressure on Europe on Saturday to get to grips with its debt crisis before it risks causing bank runs and pushing the global economy into ruinous recession.

Stocks tumbled on Thursday, extending losses for a fourth straight session, as the Federal Reserve's weak outlook for the U.S. economy and disappointing data from China heightened fears about a global recession.

The European Union will call on China this week to boost domestic demand and on the United States and Japan to tackle their public deficits as part of global efforts to rebalance growth, an EU document showed.

As his global teleconference broke up in disarray on September 11, 2001, a top economist at a U.S. investment bank began to ponder what the attacks on the United States might tell him about the future shape of the world.

Measuring the country’s economic development against that of China seems to be a national obsession in India, but the rivalry seems to be largely one-sided.

As China embraces the wealth of a market-oriented economy, the boom is breeding a generation of nouveau-riche lotharios seeking to rival the indulgences of their imperial ancestors.

China's economy slowed less sharply than expected in the second quarter and Beijing said corralling inflation remained its top priority even though a "complex and volatile" global economy clouded the outlook.